There are multiple methods of identifying manufactured goods. Many such goods are labelled with a Universal Product Code (UPC). A UPC contains a Manufacturer's identification number and an item number. This enables appropriately configured UPC readers to identify a given product's type and manufacturer, but no additional information directly. Following the adoption of UPC, a new standard was developed: the Electronic Product Code (EPC). The principle advantage of EPC over UPC is its capacity. An EPC, with maximum size of 256 bits, can uniquely identify several orders of magnitude more items than UPC. EPC codes are often embedded in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags. An EPC typically encodes a product's serial number in addition to product type and manufacturer. This information, once captured by an appropriately configured reader, may be used to lookup the associated product's data in a product database.
Unfortunately, there are limitations with these methods. Principally:                1. There is no commonly accepted network to lookup EPC tag information. If a company scans a product's RFID tag with EPC data encoded on it, the data is useless unless the company has a record of the product's EPC.        2. Specialized hardware is required to scan EPC codes embedded on RFID tags. The general public cannot identify EPC codes with technologies they have everyday access to.        
In addition to limitations with EPC-based product identification, there are associated limitations with users' information technology systems. Specifically:                1. Product data associated with an EPC code is stored in restricted-access networks. If a company wants to share certain product data with individuals or companies outside their network, they must implement idiosyncratic integrations or serve their data openly outside their network. The same is true in the reverse case (that is, users outside the network want to share data with the originating company).        2. There is no platform that links EPC or other identifying product codes across manufacturers, in order to deliver common services (for example, warranty claims) to users that interface with products from multiple manufacturers.        
In summary, there is no known platform that can provision identifying product codes, manage product related data and services, and maintain user information and access rights.